Beginnings of Railway Transport on Slovak Territory

Horse drawn trains, historical steam locomotives and various railway bridge systems used on the railway lines by the four railway companies:
a) Hungarian central railway company
b) Považská railway company
c) Košice bohumín railway
d) Prešov tarnow railway are presented

Steam locomotives and railway bridges are described on rare historical photographs. Paper focuses on the period 1840-1883. Timber bridges were not built on main lines at all after 1880. Timber and cast-iron lattice bridges were continuously replaced by Howe-type truss systems (Table 1). Weak Martin steel replaced cast iron in construction of new bridges from 1895. The increased weight of locomotives required the change of loading regulations in 1893. Bridges on main lines were now to carry 2 four-axle locomotives with a tender and an axle load of 16t (6.34t/m) and a train weighing 2.8t/m. Modification of the loading was done in 1907. Temporary Eiffel-type bridge systems were replaced by the Kohn system after 1887, and Roth-Waagner temporary systems began to be used in 1900.

Table 1:Structural materials and structural bridge systems in 18^th and 19^th centuries [10].

The first railways in the Austrian empire (till 1867) and Austro-Hungarian monarchy (from 1867) on the Slovak territory (1840 1883)

Horse-drawn railway Bratislava Trnava, 1840 1846:In 1836 was established in Bratislava stock company with 17 local businessmen and landowners who decided to build a horse railway connecting 5 royal towns between Bratislava and Trnava. The railway construction began in 1839 and in 1840 first 14km between Bratislava and Svätý Jur was given over to traffic. After different financial difficulties the railway line reached in 1846 Trnava and was finally prolonged as far as Sered. Traffic was kept until half of 70s of 19th century. The horse drawn railway lines began operations as follows: Bratislava Svätý Jur on 4 October 1840. Svätý Jur Pezinok on 30 June 1841 Pezinok Šenkvice on 19 October 1845, Šenkvice Báhoň on 1 December 1845, Báhoň Cífer on 29 December 1845, Cífer Trnava on 1 June, 1846. The line was extended by the Trnava-Sered section, where operation began on 11 December 1846 (Figure 1). It was a single-track railway. On the Bratislava- Trnava section, the horse-drawn railway operated until 10 October 1872, when its reconstruction to a steam-powered railway began. The plan to extend the railway to Nitra therefore was not realized (Figure 2). Horses were used on the Trnava Sered section until 1876. Passenger trains with two carriages and freight trains with six carriages operated on the line. The load capacity of passenger carriages was approximately 1800kg, and that of freight carriages was 6000kg. Passenger trains were pulled by “light” horses, freight trains by “heavy” horses. After two days of service, they had a day off. “Light” horses were retired (sold to enthusiasts) after 4 years, “heavy” ones after 6 years. Unique bridge near the village Báhoň (1873) with 9 arches, the middle 3 of which had clear spans of 30 feet (≈9.2m) see in Figure 3 and Figure 4. The other arches had clear spans of 12 feet (≈ 3.6m). The bridge was built to the curve of the railway with the diameter of 810 fathoms (≈1 500m). It was rebuilt at 1940. (Courtesy of ŽM SR) [1,2].

Figure 1:Horse-drawn railway Bratislava-Trnava (04.10.1840-10.10.1872) and Trnava-Sereď (11.12.1846-1876).

Figure 2:a) Left: Passenger train of horse-drawn railway. (Courtesy of West Slovak Museum, Trnava, [2]). b) Right: Brick bridge over Ronava stream in Hrnčiarovce nad Parnou. Lithography with name Mangold Károly (1845-1850). (Courtesy of Gallery of Bratislava city).

Figure 3:Ferencz bridge over Vištucký stream near the village Báhoň loaded by horse drawn train. Lithography with name Mangold Károly (1845-1850). (Gallery of Bratislava city).

Figure 4:a) Left: Červený (Red) brick arch bridge in Bratislava. L.Rohbock-F.Hablitschek: Coloured lithography of red bridge, about 1850. (Courtesy of Gallery of Bratislava city).
b) Right: Steel lattice railway bridge in Marchegg over Morava River. (Old postcard).

Hungarian Central Railway Company, 1844-1850: In 1844 Hungarian Central Railway Company (HCRC) gained licence to build line between Marchegg and Bratislava. Financial difficulties caused nationalization of HCRC lines and their incorporating into the Austrian State Railways (ASR) as south-eastern State Railway. In the year 1850, the railway line was finished between Bratislava, Štúrovo and Vácz. On 31 December 1854. The all-ASR lines were sold to French syndicate led by financial businessmen Pereita Brothers. In such way the Private Austrian State Railways Company known under abbreviation StEG (in German: k. k. privilegierte österreichische Staatseisenbahn-Gesellschaft) was established in the begin of 1855, who dominated in Southwestern Slovakia until the year 1891. At km 51.368 of the Marchegg-Bratislava line, a single-track viaduct was built in 1848, named after its red brick arches Červený (Red bridge, Vörös híd). The bridge was built on the first steam railway line connecting Vienna and Bratislava. The first train drawn by steam locomotive Bihar (left on Figure 5) passed over it on 20 August 1848. The bridge (left on Figure 4) crossed the valley of the stream Vydrica at a height of approximately 17m. Its over-all length was 215m and it composed of 9 arches with clear spans of 10.7m+7x15.8m+7m. In 1881 the bridge was widened to double track by adding riveted beams and by the subsequent building of brick arches between these beams. It was completely destroyed on the 4th of April 1945 by the withdrawing German army. The bridge between Marchegg and Devínska Nová Ves over Morava River was a 474m long bridge (right on Figure 4), which was one of the largest in the then monarchy. The construction of the bridge began in November 1846. It was completed in the autumn of 1847. The bridge consisted of ten inundation brick arches with a span of 10x15m on both sides and a central part, which spanned the river and was made of a timber lattice structure with a span of 2x43m. The timber part of the bridge was destroyed during the Austro-Prussian War in 1866 by the retreating Austrian army. After its provisional repair, operation was resumed on 27.8.1866. The definitive resto- ration was completed only in 1868, with the timber provisional structure being re- placed by a continuous steel lattice structure with a span of 2x43m.

Považská Railway Company, 1873-1883: Považská železnica joint-stock company (Považská Railway Company; in German: Waagtalbahn WTB; in Hungarian: Vágvölgyi vasút V.V.V.) was founded on 8 January 1873. They decided to convert the horsedrawn railway on the Bratislava Trnava line to steam operation, for which they received approval on 13 February 1873. Operation on the line Bratislava Trnava began on 1 May 1873, on the line Trnava Nove Mesto nad Vahom on 2 June 1876, on the line Nové Mesto nad Vahom Zlatovce on 1 May 1878. The line Trenčín Žilina was built by SteG and open on 1 November 1883. In 1837, the company called Severná železnica cisára Ferdinanda (Northern Railway of Emperor Ferdinand; in German: Kaiser Ferdinands-Nordbahn KFNB) began building the first European railway connecting Vienna, Břeclav, Přerov with Kraków. In 1853, the Belgian Cockerill Locomotive Factory delivered to KFNB 6 locomotives of type 1B. They had names Fortuna-318, Chloe-319, Psyche-320, Sylphide-321, Pallas-322 and Leda-323 [3]. They were decommissioned in the years 1880-1884. Chloe and Sylphide were sold in 1872 to the Považská Railway Company, which ran with work trains there on the construction of the railway line from Bratislava to Zlatovce [4]. Sylphide may be seen right on Figure 5. Maximal allowed train speed was 38km/h, it raised to 53.06km/h in 1851 and on StEG lines reached in 1862 the speed 75.8km/h. The first steam locomotives on Slovakian railways originated from foreign locomotive factories. They were relatively simple without driver’s cab (Figure 5). Their running gear had usually the form 1B (for passenger trains) or C (for freight trains), but there were also locomotives with 4 coupled axles or with Engerth-arrangement (C2 or B2). Their steam machines were at the beginning full pressure ones (Figure 6), but later these locomotives were reconstructed to expansive ones with curved slotted link distributions [5].

Figure 5:a) Left: Locomotive Bihar (arrangement 1B; weight in service 26,8t) brought the first steam train to Bratislava in 1848 [4]. b) Right: Locomotive Sylphide (arrangement 1B; weight in service 29t) made by Belgian Cockerill factory used by KFNB and V.V.V. from 1872 [5].

Figure 6:a) Left: Loading test of arch bridge near the village Báhoň in or after 1873. The locomotive is exactly like the Sylphide (Figure 5), only shape of the chimney (consumable element) is different. It is probably Chloe locomotive 1B, which may be seen also on Figure 7. (Courtesy of Rail- way Museum of The Slovak Republic, Bratislava, [2]). b) Right: Loading test on arch bridge by Chloe type locomotive 1B of Považská Railway Company (V.V.V.) in or after 1873 on railway line Bratislava-Trnava after replacing horse trains by steam locomotive trains. (Courtesy of West Slovak Museum, Trnava, [2]).

Košice Bohumín Railway, 1871-1872: An importnat railway company that had its lines along the entire length of Slovakia. It was the only one to connect the Austrian railway network with the Tisa State Rail- way, the Hungarian-Halician Railway and the Prešov- Tarnov Railway (Figure 7). It gradually put its lines into operation from 1.2.1869 to 5.6.1908. Since 1867, an official loading scheme has been in force, according to which bridges on main lines should carry three three-axle locomotives with a tender and an axle load of 13 tons, and on local lines with an axle load of 10 tons. The basic steam locomotives arrangement had in comparison with preceding period not changed (Figures 8-15). On their exterior but manifested introducing of closed personnel cabs [6,7].

Figure 7Loading test of wrought iron Pratt type deck truss bridge by Chloe type locomotive 1B of Považská Railway Company (V.V.V.) in 1873 on railway line Bratislava Trnava after replacing horse trains by steam locomotive trains. (Courtesy of Railway Museum of The Slovak Republic, Bratislava, [2]).

Figure 8Loading test of wrought iron through arch bridge on railway line Púchov Považská Bystrica ín 1883. (Courtesy of Trenčianske Museum, Trenčín, [2]).

Figure 9Wrought iron lattice through railway bridge over Váh River in Turany (1871) with a span arrangement 48.4m+60.6m+48.4m on the track Žilina Poprad in km 221,013 with beginning of operation on 8 December 1871. (Courtesy of Railway Museum of The Slovak Republic, Bratislava, [1, 2]).

Figure 10Timber Howe type deck truss bridge over Hornád River on the track Kysak Prešov (about 1872). The railway line Košice Prešov Kysak began operation on 1 September 1870. It was replaced by steel bridge. A span arrangement 2x25m. (Courtesy of Railway Museum of The Slovak Republic, [1, 2]).

Figure 11Wrought iron lattice bridge with upper deck. Passenger train on upper bridge deck near Strečno. Steam locomotive is probably I KBD (ČSD 253.1) from 1884-1891. Košice-Bohumín Railway (old postcard, courtesy of Považské museum, Žilina, [7]).

Figure 12Wrought iron lattice railway bridge in Budatín near Žilina (postcard, about 1890, [8]).

Figure 13Wrought iron Howe type deck truss bridge on Košice-Bohumín Railway line, about 1900. Locomotive designation 313.3 (KBD IIIb2, inventory No. 137) with weight in service 38.6t. Delivered by Sigl company in Wr. Neustadt. (Courtesy of Railway Museum of The Slovak Republic, [1, 2]).

Figure 14Map of Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Košice-Žilina-Bohumín railway (1871-1872) and Prešov-Orlov- Musyzna-Tarnow railway (1870-1873-1876). Numbers mean the years of opening of the relevant railway sections [7].

Figure 15Part of Košice Bohumín railway. Steam locomotive named “Vorwärts-Wehr-Dich” produced by Austrian Sigl factory located on the wrought iron lattice bridge with upper deck. (Courtesy of Railway Museum of The Slovak Republic, [2]).

Prešov Tarnów Railway, 1864-1882: This company connected the lines of the Košice Bohumín Railway with the railway network in Galicia (Figures 16-18). A single line Prešov Orlov Čirč was open on 1.5.1873 [8,9].

Figure 16Steam locomotive similar as kkStB 4 (ČSD 254.2) crosses a border bridge not far from station Čirč guarded by Czechoslovak soldiers. Wrought iron howe type truss of pony bridge is located on prešov tarnow railway line. locomotive delivered by sigl company in wr. neustadt. (Courtesy of archive of Jiří Martenz, [2].

Figure 17Loading test of the bridge located on Prešov Tarnow line by Hungarian steam loco-motive 622.0 “Mallet”. Producers: MÁVAG, Floridsdorf. Delivered in 1912 1914 [9]. Weight in service 71,46t. (Courtesy of Railway Museum of The Slovak Republic, [2]).

Figure 18On local lines, mainly steam locomotives 310.4 were used. Short riveted plate girder made of wrought iron loaded by locomotive 310.4 with weight in service 29.1t. It was produced first time in Hungary in 1885 and used till 20s [8]. (Courtesy of Railway Museum of The Slovak Republic, Bratislava, [2]).

Bridges

On the first railways in Slovak territory, as elsewhere in the world, masonry (stone and brick) bridges and timber bridges dominated. Arch bridges built in 40s and 50s on horse railway Bratislava Trnava (at Báhoň and Šenkvice), Červený (Red) bridge on the line Marchegg Bratislava Štúrovo and several smaller bridges had clear width of arch at most 20m. Where this bridge structure was not suitable or possible due to foundation conditions, wide obstacles or low-lying level line of railway, timber bridges were built (Table 1). The largest timber bridges with a span of up to 40m were the town lattice bridges and long and Howe bridge systems. For smaller spans, strut frame timber structures were used [10]. For small spans, simple timber beams were used. The largest timber bridge structures of this period were the Dudváh bridge on the horse-drawn railway in the Trnava Sered section (Long system) and the bridges over the Morava, Váh, Hron and Ipel rivers on the Marchegg Bratislava Štúrovo-Szob railway line (Howe system). Timber bridge structures were replaced by bridges made of wrought iron due to their lower durability, fire resistance and load-bearing capacity. The first cast iron beams were wide-footed rails attached to the rails in an inverted position. An improvement was to creating wrought iron strut frame by bending the rail into the shape of a fish belly. It was used for spans 1.5m 1.8m till 70s. For spans up to 5m, rolled or riveted I-profiles were used. Larger riveted I-sections were used up to beam spans of 18m. The largest span bridges were built using wrought iron lattice girders and trusses reminiscent of the similar timber Town and Long bridge systems. The first such bridges were built in 1858 by Ruppert across the Ipel and Hron rivers on the railway line between Štúrovo and Szob instead of timber bridges. The material was always cast iron with a strength of 250MPa-360MPa and high toughness. In 1854, the Austrian Ministry of Commerce established the obligation to build bridges so that they could carry 4130kg/m./p>

More information about bridges and steam locomotives may be found in [11-14].

The paper presents results of several years of investigation in several archives, museums and long study of historical documents and publications [15]. It is written by team of experts in areas relating to both: bridge structures and steam locomotives, which were often used also for bridge testing. That is why necessary characteristics of very old horse-drawn trains and steam locomotives are provided too. The article describes the very beginnings of railway transport, including horse-drawn railways, in the territory of Slovakia, which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy starting from the year 1836 [16]. The railway development is chronologically presented till 1896. The text is accompanied by the rare historical photographs and relevant maps having strong visual and archival value. Chapter 3 is devoted to development of railway bridge systems from 1780 till 1900. Details are given Table 1. Appendix A contains with not known data about bridge systems, patents and their authors from past till 1900. More data about old steam locomotives may be found in the attached list of references.

This article has been supported by the Scientific Grant Agency (VEGA) Grant from the research programme no. 1/0155/23.

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